Things have been brown and dreary here in Chicagoland. It's hard to complain about a mild winter but the beauty of fresh fallen snow was definitely missed from a landscape shooting perspective. However, things are beginning to bud and spring will be here before we know it. In the meantime, I was fortunate to spend four days at a resort in Punta Cana on the Dominican Republic in February. It was fuel for the landscape photographer's soul with blue skies, puffy clouds and clear blue water to capture.

And with a sunrise time of 7am, it wasn't too hard to drag myself out of bed on vacation to witness the magic and peacefulness of the sunrise.

We did have one cloudy day where in rained on and off but even that provided some beauty to capture.

Finally, during the day, I took the time to capture the palm trees and a starburst here and there in the absence of the golden hour color.

If you haven't visited the Dominican Republic, definitely put it on your list for a winter getaway. It didn't disappoint!

Don't forget to follow the circle around to see some beauty from the other Viewpoints photographers! My friend, Nadeen Flynn, is up next. Click here to see her view for March.